Friday, March 04, 2011

Last month our family watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop." We loved it. In fact Gracie was bound and determined to become a street artist when she grew up. I tried to explain that while the art was fun and the story was great, vandalism isn't a good thing. But she was smitten. Her obsession with Banksy finally wavered a bit after she saw his recent Charlie Brown street art. Oh, ho, ho -- you mess with Gracie's beloved Charlie Brown, and you've crossed the line buddy.

Aaaanyway... All that to say, the kids were majorly inspired. Now of course we would never in a million years damage anyone's property. But we wanted to do something artsy. Something stealthy. Something public. Then I had a bright idea... We spent an afternoon making these guys:

I picked up a big sack of rocks, washed them, and painted the base colors. Then Isaac, Gracie, Lily, and I each claimed a color and decorated them with as many faces and expressions as we could think of. 48 rocks in all. A few close-ups:

A couple of days later, we stuffed our pockets, hit the town, and stuck our little friends in fun places.

Your oldest is 12, did you at least try to get into the grey areas of public art vs. mere 'vandalism' or did you keep it pat and surface-level? I'd think your oldest at the least would be able to contemplate the complexity of the issue ... while I want my kids not to wreak real damage for the fun of it, I also have no desire to inculcate an abiding or overweening love of property for its own sake either.

Wonderful and bright! I love them! The facial expressions are terrific and again I thank you for sharing. The one rock on the manhole cover reminds me of a chalk drawing I saw a few years back that had a big squiggle spiral and around it said: Black hole, do not step! Needless to say, I took the detour around the black hole!

AMAZING!! This brightened my morning coffee! I am thrilled that your kids are being allowed to explore their art side. Children are capable of sooooo much more than we as adults let them achieve! I get excited and happy seeing that someone "gets" that art is essential to life and a happy child.

Love it! Like many people I have a weird relationship with street art. On one hand I find it so much more interesting and expressive than commissioned public art (which can be too sanitized to be moving) the other hand holds my deep disgust for vandalism and disrespect for private property. This is beautiful. Thank you for growing such cool young artists.

Z-Kids, you are so creative and positive. I thought I would pass along another cool Random Act of Craft. Check out The Toy Society http://thetoysociety.blogspot.comPeople all over the world make small toys, put a note on them that says "Take Me Home I'm Yours" and anonymously drop it somewhere. Send a picture and location of your drop to The Toy Society and they will post it on their blog. Be sure to put the email address for The Toy Society on the note so that the finder can contact them and when the toy is found. If they do, then you get to find out who found it and how special it made them feel. Keep up the good work Isaac, Grace, Lily and Elijah... you are amazing.

You guys are a beautiful inspiration! I can easily envision a world-wide movement happening with this! Shall we?! I would love nothing more than to find one of your rocks peeking at me in the produce section! XO

Re: 'could this be considered littering'...my son painted this garden clay bird in our backyard w/washable paint one day. It took a few long rainy days to wash off the paint. This would also be an idea if anyone is worried about 'leaving a mark'. Thanks for the inspiration!

I love this! It would totally make my day if I ran across one of these. Part of me hopes everybody that found these left them so others could enjoy, but the other part hopes people took them home so they would always have a little sunshine on the bookshelf!

This is great, Just great.. you shoudl check out Katie Skoloker's blog she is also a street artist that does Positive vandalism, Nothing is perminate but it's all great too.. Maybe give you and your little ones some new ideas!

Thanks for the comments! The kids and I had a lot of fun, and we're happy folks are finding this post enjoyable :)

I wanted to let you know about a small text edit I just made. Originally the post said that "I bought a big sack of rocks," but now I've changed it to "I picked up a big sack of rocks." Now, it doesn't change the fact that I did indeed buy them. But on a lot of sites that were linking to this post, people were getting really worked up by that minor detail and missing the fun that followed. So I thought I'd remove the distraction.

But for full disclosure... "Who buys rocks?" Yes, I bought rocks. We were under a foot or two of snow at the time, and there's no way I'd be able to find 50 good rocks until it melted. I wanted to do the activity while the kids' excitement was still fresh, so I bought a giant bag of gravel at Home Depot for a mere 3 bucks. (And it did actually pain me to buy rocks)

So that's all. Simple enough. But I wanted to be honest about touching up the text in the post.

Thanks again for chiming in! We'd love to know if you try out this fun activity too :)

Absolutely wonderful! I live in Brighton, UK and the beach here is covered in stones, would love to see a few of these funky fellows lodged amongst them. I have a friend who actually knows Banksy, I am going to see he if could let him know about your project. :)

Mad Max loves this! His Mommy is an art teacher at YES Prep a charter school for MS and HS students. You should check out his blog. He featured you and Gracie's art! http://madmaxandfamily.blogspot.com

Hi, great idea. I started drawing little faces on rocks a few years ago to keep kids going while on hikes.http://www.flickr.com/photos/80r6/sets/72157621334973546/with/3860235661/Now all the kids want to make them too. I like the idea of coloring the entire rock.

I love this idea so much! I told my kids about it and we just had to do it to. Thank you so much for the inspiration. It was a great rainy weekend project for us here in Seattle. Check out our silly rock adventure at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Renton-Rocks/206236592721425#!/pages/Renton-Rocks/206236592721425

However, in as much as graffiti is vandalism (and I'm not sure it always is) couldn't this be described as littering?)

Techniquely you might be right, however the children were painting nature, not property! The pleasure these creative pieces brought to those who found them, is absolutely priceless and delightful!

Thanks for such a great project! This might just be a summer project for my class of Pre-K class to paint and distribute in their area. My class live in an area about 50 sq miles that will = 50 sq miles of smiles, That makes me:o)!

PS. Old Bat Cadet thanks so much for the FYIZ-kids you all absolutely ROCK, thanks for this smiles!!!

I like it ! for my school and for a Scavenger Hunt at a birthday party. The children paint rocks and then, an adult hide them in the garden or house. The children must found them. And then, they go home with their art's rocks.

My kids and a bunch of their friends love this idea and we'll be making some rocks in a couple weeks. What kind of paint did you use????

Also - I linked through to your other site and wanted to thank you for sharing your list of favorite books. We are working our way through your list of books now, there were only a couple (the Wiesners) that we'd previously read. It's been wonderful to discover so many new treasures! We read Black & White 4 times the day it came in the mail, and I've been exploring the alternate titles by many of the authors listed. Amazing! Many thanks!

I do this too... But I crochet them instead of painting... Then I leave them on the beach with my blog address black Sharpied on the back, and hope that someone logs them in. It's SO MUCH FUN to stick around and watch as people pick them up! Here's a link to my latest "pebbling" if you wanna have a look: http://www.curiouspebble.com/2011/05/lovely-day-for-pebbles-after-all.html

I love that your KIDS wanted to do it! Mine love going with me, but don't actually crochet (yet). Maybe I'll have them paint a few next time...

Hello!I am a girl from Latvia, 20 years old and I make very similar stones! I had this idea a few months back, wanted to make people on the streets happier or just surprised. I paint the stones with nail polish (so that it doesn't wash out) and use plastic eyes to make them seem more realistic. Some of them are painted with patterns and stripes, all I can think of.Anyway, finding out that you and your kids make the same thing as me, is quite interesting. I'd like to share my rocks with you, I take photos of them before I leave them on the street. :>You can contact me on ei-by@inbox.lv, it would be really nice!Thank you for this great find.

Thanks so much for the idea! My kids and I borrowed your idea and painted rocks to put around our neighborhood in anticipation of the annual arts festival on July 4th. We had a great time deciding where to put the rocks and wondering how many people would see them before someone "adopted" them and took them home! http://www.flickr.com/photos/taviamcgrath/sets/72157634448153259/